In Kansai they put mayonnaise on everything and put corn in salads. As if that wasn't enough, if I walk down to the convenience store right now I can actually buy a corn, mayonnaise and egg sandwich and rape my intestinal tract with it. The Anthropologist in me knows I should be open minded about these things ... after all what would Japanese people think of the menu at an American sushi bar and the strange combinations thereof, Rainbow Roll? Dragon Roll? California Roll? I have yet to see anything like them in Japan. But still ... there's a part of me that's deeply disturbed by the unholy union between mayonnaise and corn that exists here.
My name is Marianne and I'm a study abroad student at Kansai Gaikokugo Daigaku (Kansai Gaidai for short). Prior to this I spent three years as an Undergrad Anthropology student with a Japanese study minor at SUNY Stony Brook. Some of you may remember me, and no doubt tremble at memories best left repressed. Well just before the end of last year I casually (and somewhat jokingly) suggested to Hugo that I should write a column about my strange Gaijin adventures for the JCA website. Surprisingly, he took to the idea (although I'm sure he regrets it now) and thus, here I am.
I've been in Japan for a little over a month now and so far I've been taken to the hospital, accidentally climbed a mountain, got into a glaring match with evil deer over a piece of sushi, explained what the word "condom" means to a Japanese student, drank in a park with salarymen, seen a number of temples and shrines, got my picture taken by Japanese tourists, nearly fallen into about 5 or so different rice patties .... the list goes on and on and on. If Japan doesn't kill me this will probably be the best time of my life, but I don't want to write this about the individual places I saw, or things I did, or people I met ... I want to write this (column? essay? report?) about the study abroad experience in Japan. When I went I had no idea what it would be like, the kinds of challenges I would face, the kinds of responsibilities I would have. Was someone going to be there to hold my hand and walk me through everything? Or would I be thrown out into Japan and left to figure it out for myself? If you want accounts of what it's like to watch people crawl (and sometimes get stuck and require several people to help them out) through a tiny hole in one of the Todaiji's massive pillars you can find dozen of stories both online and off from tourists, scholars, and natives about it. Very few people talk about the general issues one faces when studying abroad. That's not to say you go into it totally blind, your school will undoubtedly provide you with all sorts of helpful information, but I found that before I got off that plane at Kansai International I had no idea what my life would be like from that point on.
Interesting to note that I ended up at Kansai Gaidai completely by accident. Gaidai is not a Stony Brook Study Abroad Program, it's run through SUNY Albany. You can apply for it directly, but usually if you're a Stony Brook student you end up in the program because you've been rejected from the Stony Brook programs and referred to Albany. At least that was the case with me. I applied for the program at Kyoto and was rejected because they only take a few students a year (1 this year I think) and I applied for only a half a year. When you apply for study abroad you will certainly be told that full year students are favored over half year students, what you will probably not be told (and maybe like me fail to realize) is that that means if you apply for only a half a year you're on the bottom of the list of eligible candidates. I assumed that candidates would be ordered by say ... grades and achievements and that a half a year student with a 3.5 would still be selected over a full year student with a 3.0. Although I'm not privy to the workings of the study abroad office, I came away from the experience sensing this was not the case.
Even if I had I was still stuck with the interesting dilemma of money. My parents are middle class, that type of middle class where they make too much money for me to get aid but not enough to paid for ... say a full year in Japan. So there wasn't much I could do, except trust that things would work out. When I first got that "we're sorry but no..." email from the office about Kyoto I was disappointed of course, but it turned out to be the best thing that could happen. I got into Kansai without a problem and about three weeks before I was scheduled to leave I got a call from the head of Albany's Japan study abroad program Dr. Savatt.
"One of our AIEJ students dropped out of the program, so now we have all this money we can't give back and no student ... would you consider going for the full year on scholarship?"
*blinks dumbly at the phone* "Ummmm.....YEAH!?!?!"
So here I am, paying less than I would have for one semester in the first place with a scholarship I never would have qualified for normally.
But those of you looking to study abroad in Japan and trying to figure out which programs to apply for will most likely not be as lucky as I am. Kansai Gaidai turned out to be the perfect school for my needs and my interests. I came to it completely by accident ... but you should probably do some research. What area, what type of program, what type of school ... really depends on what you want out of your study abroad experience. If you want to spend hundreds of dollars on anime stuff, go to Tokyo and the suburbs of Tokyo. If you want to improve your Japanese, go anywhere that is not Tokyo and stay away from the cities. If you want to study something beyond Japanese culture and language (like say physics or computer programming) go to a large university. If you want to mingle with Japanese students go to a small more specialized university. There are lots of factors to consider. I suppose it's only fair to warn you that I am extremely biased towards Gaidai, if only because it couldn't be more perfect for me. I'll go into detail not to pimp Kansai Gaidai's program to you but to show you that not all study abroad programs are created equal, and some will be better for you than others.
First off, I needed serious training with my Japanese. My grades in Japanese in the states were horrendous, the language was beyond my comprehension and I couldn't retain what we learned in class. Those of you savvy with the language can probably guess what the kanji for Kansai Gaikokugo Daigaku is ... that's right Gaidai is better translated to "Kansai Foreign Language University". In other words it specializes in teaching foreign languages for students who want to move on to careers in foreign affairs, international business and law, etc. All the Japanese students study English as well as other languages, which they have a more elementary understanding of (Spanish, Chinese, French, etc). All the foreign students study Japanese. I have 50 minutes of Spoken Japanese class everyday, covering grammar and vocabulary, and 50 additional minutes of Kanji class 3 days a week. Beyond that, Gaidai is filled with students who are studying English and thus are really curious about you. One of the things I've heard from study abroad students in the past is that the foreign students stick to their part of campus and the Japanese students stick to theirs with very little interaction or intermingling. At least at Kansai this is not the case. Every student at Kansai is required to spend one year abroad before they graduate so they like to practice their English. And even those students who are extremely shy and would rather not crossover into the international building are given the occasional assignment in English class to interview 5 or 6 international students with a series of rather pointless yes or no questions. Were that not enough Gaidai organizes several little programs to give you further interaction, speaking partners (which I recommend) and the ever loved "Experience Japan Program" where the Japanese students take a hand full of foreign students on day trips around the area. Finally Kansai, unlike Tokyo, is not a big international area outside of the tourist traps. Most people do not speak English.
The Japanese have this nasty little habit of assuming you don't speak Japanese and as a foreigner cannot handle Japanese daily customs either. As such they will often speak to you in English even if you ask them something in Japanese, shake your hand when you bow to them, hand you a fork and a knife when you ask for chopsticks and generally behave the way they assume foreigners behave. This can be extremely frustrating when you're looking to get some practical experience in the language, and the best way to avoid it is to find people who don't speak any English to begin with and therefore cannot possibly reply in English. Which is why if you're looking to improve your Japanese it's absolutely essential that you stay away from the cities that get a lot of foreign tourists.
The second reason to stay away from these areas is racism. The Japanese Tourist Agency and the study abroad people would like you to believe that Japan is a nation filled with smiling, friendly people who are simply in love with foreigners and are touched that you want to study their culture. Whether this is true or not really depends where you are. Japanese people who live in areas with lots of foreigners (especially tourists) have to live daily with the consequences of tourism and foreigners who don't speak Japanese but yet make constant demands on their society. As a result they tend to be more cynical, more racist and not entirely sympathetic. I once offered my seat on a crowded Kyoto City bus to an elderly man who not only completely ignored me, he would not even acknowledge my presence, a Japanese woman had to intercept in order for him to explain that he was getting off at the next stop anyway. He didn't look at me when he explained this either, but I could tell that he had in fact heard me, understood what I had said in Japanese and simply chosen to snub me.
On the other hand when I go to places that don't attract so many Americans in general I always meet people who are generally speaking really amused by me and like to tease me, ask me all sorts of questions in Japanese and show me around. In these places you are a novelty and people are curious about you, whereas in the major cities you're just another gaijin, ignorant, rude, incompetent.
Of course the cities do have they're good points. They're more exciting, noisier and generally livelier. Out here we have quiet hours after 10pm because we live in a slightly rural area and we have to be respectful of our neighbors. The dorms have lots of rules in order to keep the foreign students from bothering the community. City life is bound to be more liberal for you. And if six hours of Karaoke, bars, clubs and Pachinko parlors is your thing, head for the city.
The second thing I wanted from study abroad was the ability to travel, explore and have an adventure. In this way too Gaidai was prefect, it's on the Keihan line between Osaka and Kyoto. You go on a train going one way you hit the culture wonderland of Kyoto, you go on a train in the opposite direction you hit Osaka's web of shopping, eating and baseball fanaticism. Catch a transfer from Keihan line and you can go to Asuka, Nara, Nagoya, or Kobe. There are lots of amazing things to do for a day here.
But no matter where I go I find myself awed by the beauty of my surroundings. The landscape actually can look like the screen paintings you see in textbooks and museums, the sky always seems so much deeper and bigger, even the worst parts of Shinsabashi have their own sort of curiosity to them. Perhaps I've just been caught up in the pitfalls of idealism and maybe after a while I'll grow tired of it, but for now I'd say there's no place on Earth I'd rather be.
......even if they do put mayonnaise on everything.